The COVID in India: High on lockdown, low on welfare, and timid on economic stimulus (Part 2/3)

The COVID-19 crisis caught India unprepared when the first case was detected on 30 January in the state of Kerala. The government took nearly one and a half months to initiate measures to curb the spread of the virus. Clearly, it underestimated the magnitude of an impending crisis. For a long time, the government took a false pride in low number of cases and insisted that community transmission has not taken place. In the hindsight, it clearly appears to be a case of low testing and misplaced confidence. On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown for 21 days. This appeared to be a bold and reasonable step at that time. However, the government extended it several times without parallel supporting measures to rescue vulnerable population who lost their livelihood during the lockdown. The lockdown measures were strict and police went overboard to implement them. But the loss of livelihood forced migrant workers to march back to their villages and hometown. Millions of people started walking on highways defying government orders. This was tragic and clearly implied a failure of the government policies. After several lockdown extensions, a fatigue set in among people, and demands for opening up grew all over. The government had no choice but to gradually allow people to travel and businesses to function with social distancing protocols. By January 2021, the cases of COVID dropped significantly in India. The vaccination has also started, and there is a huge relief among the people now. Isn’t it an irony that a national lockdown was announced when there were merely 564 cases, and restrictions were lifted when there are nearly 150,000 confirmed? What does this mean? A failure of the lockdown? Where did the government go wrong? Were there enough supporting economic stimulus and welfare packages for various sections? What is the current status of COVID crisis and how is the government responding to it? How has media reacted to this crisis? How do I see the coming few weeks in India? These are some of the questions that I will try to answer in my short presentation.